Sydney stays unbeaten, Mariners surprise Perth in A-League

SYDNEY (AP) — First-place Sydney FC remained unbeaten after 17 rounds with a 2-1 win over 10-man Melbourne Victory while the Central Coast Mariners beat Perth 2-0 on Saturday to move out of last place.

After James Troisi gave the Victory the lead in the 18th minute, Filip Holosko scored in the 38th and Bernie Ibini netted the winning goal for Sydney in the 65th.

The win all but clinched the A-League premiership — Sydney now has an 11-point lead over the second-place Victory. Melbourne played a man short for the final 20 minutes after James Donachie was given a straight red card for a tackle on Sydney captain Alex Brosque.

Josh Bingham scored in the 48th minute and Fabio Ferreira four minutes later to give Central Coast its win over Perth. The Mariners moved three points ahead of Adelaide.

Later Saturday, Brett Holman capped his return from injury by guiding Brisbane to a 2-1 win over Western Sydney. Making his first appearance since November after undergoing knee surgery, the former Socceroo scored the winner in the third minute of injury time to lift the Roar into third place.

Melbourne City missed a chance to move closer to its city rival when it lost 2-1 to the Newcastle Jets. Andrew Nabbout scored in the 14th and 52 minutes before Bruno Fornaroli, on a 69th-minute penalty, made it close.

"There was a little bit more desperation tonight and we executed a little better," Jones said. "I'm perhaps disappointed we didn't take a 3-0 lead at one point there, or go 3-1 when they were chasing the game after the penalty."

On Sunday, Adelaide United and Wellington played to a 2-2 draw, with Nikola Mileusnic scoring the equalizer for Adelaide in the 80th minute.